Fields 2006
Rachael Fields
English Department
Email: rae_fields@yahoo.com
Office Rm. #: CLV 142
Office phone #: 278-6349
Office Hours: 12-1:00pm
Welcome to English 1A: College Composition
“Identity and Language”
Instructor: Rachael Fields
Class time: MWF 9:00-9:50am, section 11
Classroom #: DH 210
“Doc had taught me the value of being the odd man out, the man who senses that there
is an essential collective sanity to humans and who assumes the role of the loner, the
thinker, and the searching spirit who calls the privileged and the power to task. The
power of one was based on courage to remain separate, to think through to the truth,
and not to be beguiled by convention or the plausible arguments of those who expect to
maintain power.”
--Peekay
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
Introduction
Welcome to College! Welcome to Composition! And welcome to your new
career of writing for college! There is no doubt in my mind that you are all already
writers; however, the question is whether each of you knows that for yourself.
This class is designed to not only introduce you to college composition, but also
to explore the idea of yourself as a writer presently and as a writer evolving. For
this reason, I have chosen to focus our class readings and discussions on
language and identity in order to examine their particular connection. In addition
to considering and exploring this connection, we will be studying a variety of
essay genres and styles that you will adopt for a series of assignments in order
to investigate this issue for yourself. My goal is to provide stimulating material
and discussion to excite your participation, and in turn, allow for assignments
where you can practice at conventions of academic writing in order to prepare
you for your college writing career.
About English 1A:
“English 1A fulfills GE Area A2. Students will compose meaningful expository essays which will utilize
appropriate structure, development, and usage.”
Learning Goals
Adopted from the WPA Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition
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To write in several genres and styles.
To use writing and reading for critical inquiry, learning, thinking and communicating.
To integrate your own ideas with those of others.
To understand a writing assignment as a series of tasks, including finding,
evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing appropriate primary and secondary
resources.
To be aware that it usually takes multiple drafts to create and complete a successful
text.
To understand writing as an open process that allows you to use later inventions and
rethinking to revise your work.
To learn to balance the advantages of relying on others with the responsibility of
doing your part.
To begin building a knowledge of academic writing conventions such as genre and
styles of academic writing, appropriate means of documentation and format,
familiarity with surface features such as syntax (sentence structure), grammar,
punctuation, and spelling.
Class Texts & Materials
Required Texts:
Additional
Requirements:
Murray, Donald. Write to Learn, 8th edition.
Lunsford, Andrea. The Everyday Writer, 3rd edition.
You will need to have internet access on a weekly, if not
daily, basis in order to maintain your on-going blog
assignment for this course. You will also need a student
ID as this serves as your library card as well as a copying
card. Be sure to keep a balance on your card so you can
make copies of articles from the library for class
assignments.
Classroom Policies & Grades
Grading for all assignments in the class will follow the CSUS grading rubric;
however, there are several factors beyond the assignments that will influence your grade
such as attendance, classroom participation, and your unit portfolios. At the end of each
unit, I will collect not only your final paper, but also peer workshop drafts (including
comments from your groupmates) as well as your preliminary rough draft. The revisions
you make from your preliminary draft to your final draft are a major factor in deciding
overall essay grades, so it is in your best interest to revise, revise, revise! Also, while I
do not accept late papers, I will always accept revisions even until the last day of class
on any of your essays. If you are unhappy with any essay grade, you may revise your
paper and re-submit it for another grade at any point in the semester. My one condition
is that there must be initial effort in the first final draft of that essay for me to even
consider re-submission.
Descriptive/ Reflective essay
Analytical essay
Research/ Persuasive essay
Informative Essay
15%
15%
20%
15%
Due:
September 29
October 23
November 27
December 15*
12 Blog entries
10%
Weekly or Bi-weekly
Grammar/ MLA presentations
10%
3rd week of school
*Swing Factors:
15%
1. Attendance
2. Participation
3. Individual development
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Attendance is required. You miss up to three class sessions before your grade is dropped
significantly.
Late papers will not be accepted, so be sure to prepare, as you need to turn in all your
papers in on time to pass the course.
Courtesy, respect, and tolerance are required for this class. Please regard your fellow
classmates as respected colleagues (No joke!), even if you do not always understand or
agree with their comments or opinions. Rather than debating with your colleagues, I
recommend that you dialogue and discuss matters of difference as equals and collaborators.
Bring both books to class as we will be working from either one or both textbooks on a
regular basis.
Plagiarism is serious offense in the eyes of the University. I am obligated to pursue any
situation where I suspect plagiarism. For clarification of the exact definition of plagiarism,
here is a quote from Andrea Lunsford and Robert Connors’ Easy Writer: A Pocket Guide:
“Plagiarism, the use of another’s word without crediting that person, breaks trust with the
research conversation you are a part of and with readers as well. As a mark of dishonesty, it
can destroy the credibility of both the research and the researcher…” (131). You may look
into this issue further at the following web address: http://aaweb.csus.edu/catalog/0406/IntroductoryPages/Academic%20Policies.pdf.
Finally, since each of you decides for yourselves the topics of half the major essay
assignments in this course, I urge you to consider carefully which subjects you choose to
examine and/or investigate. If there is a subject that interests you but is also particularly
personal or sensitive, I suggest setting strict parameters around that topic, so that we may
avoid any situation where you might feel attacked. By parameters, I mean, narrowing the
philosophical or ethical scope of the issue. However, I do not want to discourage any of your
academic investigation. The best writing always begins with personal inquiry regardless of
the context or requirements, and as long as you are comfortable unraveling whatever the
issue for the sake of academic investigation, then feel free to choose for yourself.
Essays
The Descriptive/Reflective Essay: A 4-5 page paper that relates a time when you
strongly identified with a story, be it a poem, a children’s book, a movie, or a
song. For this essay, I am looking for an effective use of description and
reflection. In other words, I am looking for you to show rather than report the
impact that your chosen story has/had for you. I am also looking for you to
demonstrate thoughtful consideration as to why your story was so important to
you.
The Analytical Essay: A 4-5 page paper on a subject of you choosing as it relates
to issues of Language & Identity that we have discussed in class. Essay topics
need to be cleared with me ahead of time. You will also be required to
incorporate two outside sources, one of which needs to be an essay we’ve read
for class. Proper citation methods as well as a work-cited page is required.
The Research/Persuasive Essay: This is a 5-6 page essay, and the goal for this
assignment is to simultaneously investigate and present an issue as well as
develop a stance on the matter for your reader to consider. Again, this essay
needs to be related to theme of the class. You may expand on your last essay’s
topic, or you may choose an entirely separate discussion topic. Again, topics
need to be cleared with me. You will need to incorporate an additional three
sources into your text, along with proper citation and a works-cited page. During
the ninth week of classes, I will be holding mandatory conferences for every
student in order to discuss progress on this particular essay as well as progress
in the class. s
The Informative Essay: Finally! A 4-5 page paper that examines a particular
theme in the movie we watch in class. This theme should again relate to
language and identity, how that issue is manifested, treated, and/or discussed by
the movie. No outside sources this time, but I expect plenty of thoughtful
consideration, investigation, and even analysis for this paper.
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MLA & Grammar Presentations
You will present for 4-5 minutes on one particular grammar, style, MLA format, or
punctuation topic that you will sign up for on the second day of class. You will
need to prepare a brief handout that summarizes this rule or definition and
demonstrates both standard and non-standard usage for all your classmates, so
that they may compile a kind style guide and grammar plus MLA reference
packet.
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Blog Assignment
You will be writing at least one response to in-class discussions or readings that
we do for class a week. We do skip a week or two during the semester when
larger assignments are due, so altogether you will be responsible for 12 blog
entries that need to amount to at least 200 words. Some entries will have specific
topics that I will assign ahead of time, but mostly, your blog is your space to
discuss, comment on, question, consider, etc…topics that come in class or in
readings. I will give you more information on what to expect in a formal handout
that you should keep for your notes. You will be graded on your blogs!!!
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Movie
During the fourth unit of this course, we will be viewing a movie entitled The
Power of One. This movie relates powerfully to our course theme this semester,
and so our last essay will focus on the movie in particular. The story deals with
apartheid and colonialism in South Africa before and during World War II and so
offers a good context to discuss the clashing of cultures, language, and individual
identity within one country at certain time in history.
Resources
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Writing Center, Calaveras 128—front desk: Free weekly tutoring Appointments!
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Information about Learning Disabilities resources:
www.csus.edu/sswd/resouces/hndbk/faculty.html
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Sac State Library, 2cd floor help desk for research purposes of specific texts.
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AND ME!!! Please come talk to me during my office hours or by appointment at
Calaveras Hall 142. Calaveras Hall is located behind Douglas Hall, adjacent
from Mendocino Hall, which is directly a few step away from the Riverfront
Center. I’m really easy to find, so if you have any questions, concerns, or
comments about the assignments, the readings, or class discussions, my door
is open.
Unit One: The Descriptive and Reflective Essay
Week
Month
Date
Class Session
1
Sept.
9/4
Labor Day—No
Class
9/6
Class Intro. +
Syllabus
9/8
Presentation sign
ups & group
assignments, +
Writing Center
Reading: TBA (descriptive/reflective
essay)
9/11
Computer Lab +
Blog assignment
Reading: Murray 208-14
9/13
Murray, Chp. 19
Reading: Murray 303-06, 308-09
Writing: Blog #1
9/15
Peer Workshop
Reading: Murray Chp. 6, 52-54
Writing: First draft, essay + copies for
group members
9/18
Grammar
Presentations
9/20
Grammar
Presentations
9/22
Grammar
Presentations
9/25
Murray on
Freewriting, pgs.
68-70
9/27
CSUS Grading
Rubric activity
9/29
TBA
2
3
4
Sept
Sept
Sept
Assignments Due
Writing: Essay #1 Rough Draft +
Blog #2
Reading: TBA
Writing: Essay #1, Final Draft due